Belief Systems

7th hour explores belief systems with a game of musical chairs!

This past week in YESS we began discussing belief systems. We have noted that the brain is a very sensitive organ that is heavily influenced by the way we think. Our scholars have a strong understanding of the power of positive thought thanks to all of our work around "stinking-thinking" and our ritual of "Today I Choose." We are now trying to work out why, perhaps, we have certain beliefs about ourselves--some of which may really stink!

Andrew contemplates his word during 4th hour.

We began by playing a version of musical chairs. Each scholar had a chair (we were not trying to "get" any one out!) and a T-chart to fill out as we worked through this exercise. On each chair there was one note card that was facing down; whenever the music stopped, each scholar had to pick up the card on the chair in front of him or her. They then had to record the word on their chart and describe one immediate connection they had to that word--whether it was positive, negative, or neutral.

Afterward, we wrote a reflection about the word each scholar liked "best," or had the most positive connotation to, and the word they liked the "least," or the word with which they experienced the most negative connotation.

It was interesting to see scholars in the same class periods having polar opposite reactions to the same words. For instance, the word "math" made one student happy because she is gifted and talented, while another just wrote "can't do" next to the word (see the pictures for more examples!).

An example of our worksheet-- these two ladies reacted very differently to the word "school." 

An example of our worksheet-- these two ladies reacted very differently to the word "school."

Understanding our belief systems is a key part of emotional intelligence, and will we be discussing belief systems for the next two weeks. Stay tuned for more!